Wednesday 29 November 2017

Chough still present

South west corner of horse fields north of Knowsly road also gets into grassy area to the west of the footpath the other side of the hedge and on nearby heysham village rooftops


Thanks very much for these Craig

Trying to attempt to age this bird using Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze suggests that this bird is an adult, but other references needed to see at what point in late autumn they might become very difficult on eg iris colour and tail shape/wear.  If it is definitely not a 1CY, this suggests an individual with a 'lengthy lost wanderer' status than a recent storm-blown bird, not that there is much evidence of IOM birds crossing the sea to the mainland, judging by lack of Cumbrian records and more on vagrancy distribution (and a Heysham ringing recovery) to suggest more terrestrial wandering from NW Wales.  However this (apart from the Welsh ringing recovery) is all idle speculation without more evidence and/or reference sources to check 

North wall
Small unidentified duck with/lost amongst the Eiders which were not counted today
Med Gull - usual ad patrolling